“Fog is my weakness, and every time there is low fog, I am out and about with my camera.“—Om Malik

A few short weeks ago this same picture was full of rich blues and browns and colorful fall leaves covering the surrounding trees. I love weather — any kind. We have so many days of sunshine here in the Grand Valley of Western Colorado, that the clouds, the rain, the snow, and anything that breaks up the monotony, is welcome. (One website says 245 sunny days, another says 240.) Don’t get me wrong, I love the relatively temperate climate here, but there’s no drama in that. I think it’s a nice break when a storm pushes through. And, of course, I have a birds eye view.

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I recently discovered alcohol inks. I’ve seen some beautiful art made with this medium, too. I don’t think it’s easy to work with, although in the abstract, I’ve gotten some really pretty pieces.

For those of you not familiar with alcohol inks, they’re basically alcohol based inks — they respond to alcohol in somewhat the same manner water colors respond to water. It IS different from watercolors. For instance, if you drop alcohol into a painting, the color on the surface will bloom — as in the picture below. The spots on the tree are created by dabbing alcohol on the inked surface. You can also use alcohol pens, like Copic pens or even Sharpies. In fact, you can use Copic ink refills as the ink. What I use are Jacquard Piñata inks and Tim Holtz Ranger inks, a painting tool filled with alcohol, a Copic colorless blender, and paintbrushes. These inks work best on non-porous surfaces, like tiles, acetate (Dura-Lar), or Yupo. I have also used photographic paper. I’ve seen tutorials where foil was used that gave the art a stained-glass type appearance.

This is my latest and it’s one I think I will frame, eventually. This is Tim Holtz Ranger inks on Yupo, using a paintbrush to spread the ink, a smaller paintbrush to dab alcohol on the tree for leaves, and the Copic colorless blender pen for the trunk and branches and the vegetation at the bottom.

I went to a class at Seasons to Follow in Downtown Grand Junction, where I was shown how to use canned air to make a flower on a 4 x 4 tile. I though those turned out kind of interesting, but they don’t look a lot like what I was being shown. I have trouble controlling the air. I compensated for my ineptitude by making details in the middle of the white flower/black tile, and putting dots and lines all around the one on the white tile.

Another tile I did was based on a YouTube tutorial by Myriam’s Nature (Miriam with a y). She is a lot of fun and really creative. I followed along as best I could. I am not unhappy with the result. I wiped that tile clean several times until I finally ended up with something I liked. That’s another cool thing about these inks—you can thin and wipe and pour until you have something you like.

I tried a couple other of Myriam’s tutorials, but I have a hard time emulating what she does. I guess it’s all in the interpretation and I end up liking all of them.

The following are my effort to make something I like. I have also followed another artist, predominantly on Instagram, who mixes and mixes and mixes until she finally has something that I think is so beautiful. They’re more like the pink and gold one below, but the color mixes are so interesting, and she uses alcohol spots to add interest. Her Instagram name is manifest.jess. Check out her art; it’s beautiful!

For the one below, I may eventually use a black marker to make flower details. This reminds me of fabric my grandmother might have had.

As difficult as this medium is to wrangle for traditional and representative art, it can be done and I have seen some beautiful pieces on Pinterest. If all I ever do is these hodge-podge pieces, I’ll be happy. They’re very colorful. I would also like to do some landscape art with this, but it will take a lot more practice.

If I ever want to add or subtract to any of these pieces, I can always use more ink, or I can use 91% Isopropyl alcohol to remove ink, and I can do that weeks after—probably even years.

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“I have long thought that anyone who does not regularly—or ever—gaze up and see the wonder and glory of a dark night sky filled with countless stars loses a sense of their fundamental connectedness to the universe.” —Brian Greene

I took these pictures 11/8/18 on the Colorado National Monument. It was a class put on by the Monument and taught by Christopher K. Eaton. We hiked down a little way to get a good spot to photograph and then he helped us, with our different cameras, to take these night pictures. I had a blast and learned a lot. My feet got really cold, though. I did wear plenty of clothes and I had hand warmers, but my feet were what finally did me in. I can’t wait to do this again. I hope I can find someone with the same interest; I really don’t want to be out there alone at night. I’m not as brave (or foolhardy) as I once was.

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It was a beautiful and relaxing afternoon at the newest winery in Palisade, Colorado, Restoration Vineyards. They put on a party that included wine, Double B BBQ serving up yummy food, music by Jared Shaw and Erika Beland and Crimson Finch, stunning views, and a sunny and warm fall day. It was all so relaxing surrounded by my sweet, long-time friends. The icing was enjoying the success and party spirit of my newest friends, Gary and Linda Brauns, the energetic and imaginative owners of Restoration Vineyards. They know how to put on a party!

This venue is surrounded by vineyards and cherry and peach orchards with a view of Mount Garfield that is quite different from mine. I had lots of photo subject matter.

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I may not write much, but I might. I mostly want to post pictures of where I’ve been and what I’ve done as well as some art I’ve been doing — both with software and with my hands. It won’t probably be anything very serious at all. Thanks for looking in on me again.

The two pictures I’m posting tonight are of some trees and the moon. It was so pretty this morning, and it’s warm again, although it’s going to get cold pretty soon.

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I am often confounded by the software industry tweaking something out of usefulness, and the upgrades that Adobe is making to its Lightroom software may be just that. I’m willing to see where it goes, of course. But since mine apparently upgrades itself, this morning, when I wanted to get something done and move on, I had to deal with some unfortunate issues with the latest and greatest version of Adobe Lightroom CC (2015).

If you’re using Lightroom CC and you’ve deliberately or accidentally upgraded to the latest version, here is a link to instructions to go back to the last version of the software (CC 6, I believe). Lightroom is a great piece of photo-editing software, but it appears that rather than keeping this a high-end, usable program for photographers, Adobe is trying to cater to the mobile photographer set. To that end, they’ve dumbed it down, ostensibly so the learning curve is less steep. Unfortunately, in doing that, they’re eliminating useful things I, and many other users, have come to depend on. That said, I imagine we’ll eventually get used to that. The problem now is that several things in the upgrade just don’t work, although they’re supposed to. They’re things that are not being eliminated, just changed, I think.

So, if you use this great software and want to continue to use it until the engineers get the kinks worked out, downgrade. It’s so cool that you actually can, and it’s even more amazing how simple it is! I used the instructions in this article—Install a previous version of any Creative Cloud application—to do just that. It’s very easy, and I’m back up and running with what works.

One of my issues was importing. I imported all my pictures, but somehow Lightroom didn’t show all the pictures I thought I had imported. I could see that some I had shot were missing, and Lightroom said I had 20 more to import, but when I went to find the 20 missing ones, I couldn’t import them because Lightroom said they were already imported. In CC 6 (I think was the latest before this upgrade), I could tell it to ignore suspected duplicates or I could uncheck that box. Nowhere in the new import window could I find such an option. I also checked out all the Preferences panel (may be called something else on a Windows machine).

I then found I was now unable to copy from one picture to another, settings that worked for the type of picture I was working on. You know, if you make adjustments to the exposure, temperature, highlight, shadow, white, and black sliders, for instance, you can then copy those setting and apply them to the next similar photo by clicking on the “paste” button. That wasn’t working today.

Anyway, if you’re using Lightroom CC, and have any of these issues (or others), the answer for you may be to downgrade. It worked for me.

Here are a few of the pictures I was trying to work on. I took a walk in Downtown Grand Junction yesterday with my camera. Colors are great, but in Grand Junction, we’re getting almost to the end of color season. Leaves are falling off trees, and there’s less to shoot. I got a few that I liked and here they are.

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Patrón and I took an eight-hour drive that took me through Glenwood, Carbondale, Redstone, over McClure Pass, Paonia, Hotchkiss, and Cedaredge.

Crystal River

We drove over the Grand Mesa first on 65, then the Old Grand Mesa Road, and stopped at the small parking spot below the Crag Crest Trail so Patrón could stretch her legs. She and I enjoyed some time sitting at the lake and walking along the road.

I took a few pictures of sunflowers that were obviously past their prime, but they were so pretty anyway. There’s some serious standing water in the low spots, too — presumably from all the recent rains.

We then got back on 65 at the Visitor Center and soon took off onto the Land’s End Road. That first mile or so going down is kind of spooky. (I have no idea how they do that Lands End Road Rally [?] every year without someone seriously falling off the mountain.)

Looking South.

Looking West.

It was a really nice day, but Patrón wasn’t too thrilled with being tied down in the vehicle. I gave her enough lead to hang her head out the window (I’m not a completely horrible mother), but I need to find a better way to tie her down. She got herself completely tangled in her leash and the harness I bought just to keep her in place in the vehicle. I’d hate to buy a cage for her to travel in when part of the purpose is for her to have some “head-hanging” time. But she cannot wander the vehicle. I stopped several times for her to water and pee. She did neither, and she wouldn’t get back in of her own accord—I had to lift her into the seat. I also wanted to do a little exploring (like Redstone Castle), but couldn’t with her in tow. (Why can’t I lock the doors with the keys in the ignition?!! I have another set of keys!)

I won’t take her every time, but this was interesting and fun trying to figure out what to do with her. When she tried to wallow in a dead fish, I was not completely sold on this arrangement.

Outside of Paonia, I finally saw the coal mine(s) where my son used to work. While in Paonia, I visited the Orchard Valley Farms & Market and Black Bridge Winery and discovered a new, interesting addition to their vinegars—Ripe Peach White Balsamic Vinegar. Yummy! Not sure it’s new, but it is to me.

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Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

—Confucius

I try to remember to see it. Last weekend, my daughter, her daughters, my friend, and I went to Rifle Gap, Rifle Falls, and Harvey Gap. From there, we drove through a beautiful sheep and cattle (and spring-and-wet-green) valley behind the Hogbacks, then we went through Newcastle and went back home to Rifle. We had a lot of fun, and I found it was beautiful there. I’ve lived in Western Colorado for 38 years, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen those places. Below are pictures I took of our trip. I told the grand kids that when I went up there again, I’d take them with me. I expect that will be a blast.

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It’s been awhile since I posted anything. Between work (busy season), work (finishing up what I started), bowling, school and the accompanying homework, and everyday stuff, I’ve been pressed for time and energy. Bowling and school are out for the summer and all work seems to have calmed down for a little bit.

I came home for lunch today and found this flower in my driveway. It’s a weed, really, but it sure was pretty, open and full. I took a lot of pictures with a real camera before I headed into the house to eat lunch. About 40 minutes later I went back outside to head back to work. I was going to shoot a quick picture with the iPhone to show a co-worker. By that time, the flower had closed up completely.

When I got downtown, I noticed these flowers as I walked through the breezeway from the parking garage.

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I haven’t posted for a bit. Between a very busy day job, trying to keep up with the other job, school, bowling, and then being sick last Saturday, I’ve had a whirlwind existence lately. Tomorrow I’ll go in to work for awhile to get a head start on next week (for my comfort), take Patrón for another walk, then I’ll head to a friend’s for dinner.

I was able to go for a walk last Sunday and was saddened to see that someone had moved the weathered board so there were no more tufts of grass growing through its holes. Maybe that grass just blew away, but I doubt it. I was hoping for the grass to grow longer for a bit and be able to take another photo. I was sorry to see it no longer looked as it did. And I wondered that someone could come along and not see the artistry in that mess of old wood and clumps of grass.

Today I got homework done and that’s a relief. It was due Friday and we had a reprieve, thankfully. I was at wits end trying to figure out how I was going to get that done. What a relief. Just four more weeks, I think.

After bowling is over (two more weeks), school is over (fourish more weeks), and I’m not allowed overtime at the day job, I can take weekends and go sometimes. I’m tired of being trapped at home either having to do something — or thinking I should.

Today I downloaded a new camera app for my iPhone and I think I like it. I am disappointed with the native camera’s abilities and this app will at least make the photos look more vibrant. I’ve seen so many others’ photos from their phones and they look so good — and my phone photos kind of just suck. Anyway, the photos’ editability still isn’t great, but colors are vibrant and I am able to capture light and dark in a composition that is wildly different in tonal values. The name of the app is Pro HDR-X. It’s a toy, but a fun one.

I drove a little way up Unaweep Canyon this evening and took this picture.

This I took a little earlier on my walk on the desert. The clouds, where there’s nothing to block them, are so pretty.

After driving up Unaweep Canyon for bit, I backtracked to the Gunnison River Bluffs/Old Spanish Trail parking corral. As the sun set, I captured this. I didn’t get light adjusted properly, but even so, I thought this turned out cool. I had to wait until a hiker’s silhouette fell below the horizon. For the longest time, while the sun set lower, there was a solitary figure walking from the left to the right along the top of those hills in the background. Had I been able to zoom in on him, that might have made a nice photo, too, but with the phone, he would have just been too small for any artistic impact.

A child is like a butterfly in the wind. Some can fly higher than others, but each one flies the best it can. Why compare one against the other? Each one is different. Each one is special. Each one is beautiful.